M6 Gran Coupe

Make
BMW
Segment
Sedan

Automakers clamor for the opportunity to get their cars out in front of racers as the official safety car of a major racing series. Mercedes provides the support cars for F1, DTM alternates between the German marques, and the pace car for the Indy 500 always changes from year to year. But MotoGP is all about BMW. The Bavarian automaker has been providing the safety cars to the premier motorcycle racing series for 15 years now, with a succession of M cars ushered into duty over the years. And the latest is the new M6 Gran Coupe.

Unveiled this past January in Detroit, the M6 Gran Coupe is the four-door version of the twin-turbo super-coupe, packing 560 horsepower for a 4.2-second 0-62 time. And now it's been fitted with emergency lighting, special livery and other equipment to get it ready for safety-car duty. Alongside the M6 GC, BMW will also be providing an M3 support car, a pair of M550d xDrive Touring wagons for medical cars and a set of HP4s from the BMW Motorrad division to serve as safety bikes (which strikes us as a little ironic, but anyway). The fleet debuts this weekend when the season kicks off with the grand prix in Qatar.